Preparing for Shipwreck

27

It was the fourteenth night, and we were still being driven about in the Adriatic Sea, when around midnight the sailors sensed that we were nearing land.

28

So they dropped a plumbline and found the water one hundred and twenty feet deep. A little farther on, they took another sounding and found it ninety feet.

29

Fearing we might run on the rocks, they let out four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight to come.

30

At this point, the crew made an attempt to abandon ship — they lowered the lifeboat into the sea, pretending that they were about to let out some anchors from the bow.

31

Sha’ul said to the officer and the soldiers, “Unless these men remain aboard the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved.”

32

Then the soldiers cut the ropes holding the lifeboat and let it go.

33

Just before daybreak, Sha’ul urged them all to eat, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have been in suspense, going hungry, eating nothing.

34

Therefore I advise you to take some food; you need it for your own survival. For not one of you will lose so much as a hair from his head.”

35

When he had said this, he took bread, said the b’rakhah to God in front of everyone, broke it and began to eat.

36

With courage restored, they all ate some food themselves.

37

Altogether there were 276 of us on board the ship.

38

After they had eaten all they wanted, they lightened the ship by dumping the grain into the sea.

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